Covens

A coven is the formal organization and working unit of witches and Wiccans. )The origin of the word coven is not clear. Most likely, it derives from the verb convene, which includes in its variant convent, which once referred both to a religious meeting and the place of a religious meeting. Chaucer used the term … Read more

Voodoo Lexicon

Agwe Loa of the ocean, of ships and boats, patron of seafarers. Spouse of Maitresse Erzulie in her aquatic aspects. Mainly Rada (but see Ge-Rouge below).   Ardra Locality on the coast of Dahomey, from which Moreau de Saint-Mery refers to the Dahoman people generally as “aradas,” and from which comes the term “Rada” denoting … Read more

Witchcraft Lexicon

This lexicon mainly applied to modern wicca. WITCHCRAFT: the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers, usually in order to inflict harm or damage upon members of a community or their property. Other uses of the term distinguish between bad witchcraft (black magic) and good witchcraft (white witchcraft or wisecraft), with the latter often involving … Read more

Witch

1. a person believed to have magic power: sorceress2. an ugly old woman: hag3. a charming or alluring girl or womanThe Merriam Webster Dictionary  According to sixteenth-century English lawyer William West: “ A witch or a hag is she which being deluded by a league made with the devil through his persuasion, inspiration or juggling, … Read more

Shaman

The word shaman is from the Tungus: saman. Meaning a Priest of Shamanism; A Magician. (Webster) From Occidental Mythology by Joseph Campbell “The myths and rites of the roving tribesmen of the Great Hunt, for whom the animals, large and small, of the rolling plains manifestation of the powers and mysteries of nature, were based … Read more

Benandanti

The Benandanti (“Good Walkers”) is a sect of Northern Italy that probably existed in the 16th and 17th centuries. Being born with a caul (the amniotic sac) was the selective mark. On Thursdays during the Ember days, periods of fasting for the Catholic Church, the Benandanti claimed to travel out of their bodies while asleep … Read more

White Witch

During the witch trials of Early Modern Europe, many practitioners of folk magic that did not see themselves as witches, but as healers or seers, were convicted of witchcraft (Éva Pócs’ ‘sorcerer witches’) Many English ‘witches’ convicted of consorting with demons seem to have been cunning folk whose fairy familiars had been demonized and over … Read more

Brujeria

Brujería is the Spanish word for witchcraft. Brujeria also refers to a mystical sect of male witches in the southermost part of Argentina. Both men and women can be witches, brujos and brujas respectively. Brujos is the plural term that can mean either a group of male witches or both male and female witches. The … Read more